Quarterback? Anybody got a quarterback?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Tuesday, August 21, 2007  |  Comments( 4 )

Atlanta Falcons
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If this was a movie, Bobby Petrino would be waking up any time now.

"What was it?" his wife would ask, anxiously. "You were yelling in your sleep."

"Oh, it was horrible. I dreamed that Michael was charged with running dog fights and got sent to jail. Then D.J. blew out his knee. And I was looking at Joey and Chris as my two quarterbacks."

"Dog fights?"

"Yeah -- weird, wasn't it? I mean, why would a guy making millions of dollars a year throw away his career for chump change?"

Unfortunately for Petrino and all the Atlanta Falcons' fans out there who haven't scrambled off the bandwagon, this was no dream. It's Joey Harrington and Chris Redman, take them or leave them.

Redman used to be Petrino's best quarterback. That was almost a decade ago, though, when he played for the University of Louisville and Petrino -- now Atlanta's rookie head coach -- was the offensive coordinator.

Unlike Harrington, no one can fault Redman's play over the past three years -- he hasn't been playing. First he suffered a serious back injury in 2003, then he spent a year getting his health back, and then he discovered nobody really needed him any more.

True, this is a guy who once threw 57 touchdown passes in a season (at Male High School in Louisville), became the first Division I-AA quarterback to complete over 1,000 passes in a career, and threw for more than 3,000 yards plus 27 touchdowns as a Cardinal in 1988.

He even had a decent season for the Baltimore Ravens in 2002, managing over 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns.

That was before the second Gulf War started, back when Katrina was just another girl's name. A long time ago, in other words.

So what now, especially considering third-stringer (and possible backup) D.J. Shockley tore his ACL and did assorted other damage to his left knee making a simple cut in a preseason game with the Buffalo Bills?

"I made that cut probably 40 or 50 times in my life and never thought anything about it," a dejected Shockey -- a University of Georgia product and local favorite -- said afterward. "Once I hit the ground, I knew I wasn't getting up."

He's gone for the season.

The Falcons do have a fourth-string quarterback -- Casey Bramlet, the pride of the University of Wyoming and the Hamburg Sea Dogs. They didn't take any quarterbacks in the most recent draft, though, because it seemed that they had too many.

Of course, when the other NFL teams start trimming salary, a veteran backup might emerge -- maybe a Kelly Holcomb (the Eagles are ready to dump him), Josh McCown or Andrew Walter if and when JaMarcus Russell signs with Oakland, or maybe even a Mark Brunell.

For Petrino, it must be like having your date for the prom get sick the day of the dance.

Still, Harrington had his moments in the preseason opener with the Jets. And Redman actually won the second game against Buffalo with a short touchdown pass to TE George Cooper.

Maybe, just maybe ...

Wake up, Bobby.
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